After an early dinner at the Maswik Lodge, we headed back to our rooms. Stefan had started a nightly ritual of having a nightcap of Jameson Irish Whiskey while reflecting back upon on our day. Since Ann was tired and Dawne had no interest in the whiskey, they headed to their rooms for the night. The guys headed to my room for the nightcap. I left the door open as I went to grab some ice on the first floor. And that’s when it all went downhill…

Upon my return, I discovered that an uninvited guest had decided to join us. A small brown bat had flown in through the open door and was now flying all around the room in panic mode. He eventually settled high on the vaulted ceiling, hanging upside down near a heavy, wooden crossbeam.

Our uninvited guest

Jan found the situation quite humorous and sat in a chair chuckling nonstop, to the point that tears were rolling down his face. The fact that the bat was in my room, and not his, appeared to be the major source of his amusement. Jan, being the king of 20-20 hindsight, correctly pointed out that it probably wasn’t such a great idea to leave the door open. I thanked him for his insight.

The three of us sat there clueless as to how to get the bat out of the room. As we sipped our whiskey, talk of rabies and vampires did not help the situation. I decided to call the front desk and ask for suggestions. They agreed to send a porter.

As far as I can tell, the job of porter is a catch-all, entry-level position that involves any tasks that others are not assigned. The poor porter now found that bat removal had been added to his job description. He showed up armed for battle with a four-and-a-half foot broom. The short broom was obviously no match for the 16-foot high ceiling. He quickly called for reinforcements. A second man showed up with a giant dust mop attached to a long extension pole. I began to suspect that these two had not completed their bat-removal training.

To their credit, the two porters were very concerned for the bat’s safety. After all, the poor little bat had not harmed anyone. Eventually, we decided to turn out the lights, hoping the bat would fly toward the light shining in through the open door. After several attempts to coax the bat to fly with the encouragement of the dust mop, we were successful in getting him out the door and back into the night sky.

Crisis averted, we thanked the porters profusely and continued with our nightcap. (Note to self: It is always a good idea to close the door behind you.)